Session III: Mission and Objectives for Gen Ed / WAC Program
Sample Objectives/Goals/Outcomes
University of Arizona WAC Program
The goals of The University of Arizona WAC program are
 To teach the writing process in first-year composition--context analysis, drafting, peer review, and
revision--with a view to its applications across the curriculum.
 To incorporate writing in the general education courses in Tier One and Tier Two to build on and
reinforce that writing process.
 To provide adequate faculty development through partnerships between Writing Program specialists, the
Writing Center, the University Teaching Center, the major departments, and the Teaching Teams
Program to help faculty use writing as a means of supporting students= learning to write and writing to
learn.
 To develop common writing objectives for the lower division that elicit critical and creative thinking
and articulate university-wide standards for student performance.
 To provide stability and reinforcement for lower division writing through the University-Wide General
Education Committee.
 To provide adequate writing support for students and faculty through development of the Writing Center
and college satellite writing centers, where students may get feedback on their writing and faculty may
work with Writing Center consultants to help students perform their writing assignments.
 To identify students, through college-specific Mid-Career Writing Assessments (MCWA), who may be
at writing risk before they enter their upper division majors and provide supplemental instruction and
opportunities for them to improve their writing.
 To provide courses in the majors that teach the rhetorical contexts, processes, and conventions for
writing in those fields.
 To support student writing in the majors through faculty development in teaching the writing/thinking
process for individual disciplines.
 To provide professional writing courses that support students= writing process and help them transfer
rhetorical skills learned in first-year composition to writing at the upper-division level in the careers
they will enter.
 To support student writing in individual colleges through consultation services to administrators and
faculty on department-specific writing interventions for students in the majors.
 To help faculty and administrators develop and assess curriculum that supports student writing
development throughout their undergraduate experience.
University of Pittsburgh WAC Goals and Outcomes
We therefore recommend that faculty who teach W-courses at the University of Pittsburgh pursue the following
goals:
1. Engage students in writing as a form of thinking, reflection, and inquiry, not merely as a performance or
report.
2. Assist students in learning the forms of discourse practiced by a particular disciplinary or
interdisciplinary community.
3. Offer response to student writing that not only identifies what is lacking but also articulates what would
constitute improvement.
4. Provide opportunities for students to revise their work and thereby act upon response they have received
by the teacher or their peers.
5. Require students to take responsibility for correcting their errors in syntax, punctuation, and
spelling. (See our suggestions for correcting errors in usage.)
6. Help student to recognize the importance of advanced literacy in the life of an educated citizen.
UNLV General Education Writing Across the Curriculum Retreat
Session III: Mission and Objectives for Gen Ed / WAC Program
Clemson Pearce Center Mission and Goals
 Supports Clemson University's commitment to undergraduate education by promoting communicationintensive instruction across the curriculum and by advocating communication-intensive activities as a
means of improving teaching and enhancing students' learning
 Aims to ensure that all Clemson students are adequately prepared to communicate effectively in their
major disciplines
 Promotes communication education in the public schools by supporting innovative efforts such as the
Clemson National Writing Project Site
 Prepares students for their chosen professions by sponsoring initiatives that familiarize students with
communication practices and technologies in the workplace. With support from the University and from
corporate partners, the Pearce Center has established state of the art computer facilities that involve
students in authentic communication projects and that enhance teaching with powerful multimedia
technology
LSU Communication Across the Curriculum
CxC has three major goals:
 developing communication-intensive courses in disciplines and professional schools for all students at
LSU;
 supporting students who apply for "High-Level Communicator" certification on their transcripts; and
 building collaborative groups of faculty members who emphasize communication in their courses and
research through workshops, special events, and summer institutes.
To further support these goals, CxC is building a comprehensive resource database for students and faculty on
this website, testing three proposed delivery systems for digital portfolios for students, and developing a
comprehensive assessment program for determining the effects of these initiatives. The directors have joined in
proposing many new programs and grants with faculty and administrators in LSU's colleges. Together, they are
working to add to the resources available for communication instruction at LSU.
Sample Mission Statements
Missouri-Columbia Campus Writing Program Mission Statement
Writing Intensive courses help produce an educated, articulate citizenry capable of reasoning critically, solving
complex problems, and communicating with clear and effective language.
NC State Campus Writing and Speaking Program: Program Mission and Activities
The CWSP is a direct response to NC State's commitment to improve its graduates' writing and speaking
abilities and incorporating writing and speaking into the classroom as powerful tools for teaching and learning in
all curricula. At the center of the Program's many goals and services is support for engaging students as active
participants in learning their subject matter, the ways of thinking that define their discipline, and the conventions
of discourse that will define them as professionals in their fields.
University of Arizona WAC Program Mission Statement
The mission of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) at the University of Arizona is to create a university
culture that understands writing to be the principal means by which scholars conduct inquiry (writing to learn),
display their knowledge (learning to write), and share their learning with others (writing to build knowledge
collaboratively). Through faculty development and institutional structures to support student writing, the
program is intended to teach that rhetorical analysis, review, and revision are the writing/thinking processes
used by writers in different fields to construct written texts for sharing their thinking effectively in their
rhetorical contexts.
UNLV General Education Writing Across the Curriculum Retreat